Just a brief impression from a quick blind taste of this reasonably hard to get wine (in Australia anyway) yesterday. From Gimblett Gravels, Hawkes Bay, New Zealand.

Deep purple in colour. Nose is vibrant, lots of blueberry, liquorice, spice, blackberry and some chocolate. At first I thought the palate was a bit oak heavy but it is good quality oak and it was less obvious and seemed in balance on the second taste. Fine tannins, excellent structure - it should age beautifully.

I felt this has the structure and fruit depth to drink well now and over the next 6-8 years.

It is a really classy wine, but the question was - is it worth the hefty price tag of between $65 to $105 AUD? I wasn’t certain straight away, but the more I thought about it, this is a world class Syrah and is probably worth that level of money. 92 points.

Cam, I believe this is the label that came to many of our attentions when Parker went ga-ga over their Sauv Blanc about three years ago, right? (FWIW, which is not much, I bought a bottle of that wine and found it overly ripe for my tastes.) Anyway, sounds like this syrah didn't suffer the same fate. And it's good to see the spotlight on another grape that New Zealand is doing very good things with.

Welcome to the forum, btw.

Jenise

My wine shopping and I have never had a problem. Just a perpetual race between the bankruptcy court and Hell.--Rogov

Jenise wrote:Cam, I believe this is the label that came to many of our attentions when Parker went ga-ga over their Sauv Blanc about three years ago, right? (FWIW, which is not much, I bought a bottle of that wine and found it overly ripe for my tastes.) Anyway, sounds like this syrah didn't suffer the same fate. And it's good to see the spotlight on another grape that New Zealand is doing very good things with.

Jenise,
Steve Smith MW of Craggy Range had a personal visit with RP, along with John Hancock of Trinity Hill (I think). They took a number of wines from Hawkes Bay with them for RP to try and RP awarded the 2002 Le Sol Syrah a 94 in issue 155. I haven't see the magazine but if he rated the sauv banc, it didn't get 90 points or more.
As I said I haven't tasted the 2004 Le Sol Syrah yet, but the 2004 Sophia, which is a blend of Merlot and Cabernet Franc, is a classy, classy wine.